first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning is that I feel blessed and shocked at the same time because it's almost unbelievable that I woke up the pain I feel when I wake up is all over and I feel sometimes I can't take or live this life one more minute to carry all this weight it's physically draining mentally emotionally taxing it's not a pain or life I wish on anyone because I can't do anything I can't do anything for anyone especially my s so I am completely dependent upon my fiance Catherine
Robert bishel is a 41-year-old from New Jersey weighing 842b which makes him one of the heaviest people to have ever been featured on the show after I'm done getting him dressed and ready for the day me's mom come in to figure out what he wants to eat you had asked me the other day to get K basa and you want pis if they have them yeah yeah okay anything else they they really good bread there Italian bread bread please yeah how many Rob two loaves two loaves yeah it be fine no vegetables right no vegetables
Rob no vegetables no green or red you know how I like it I know Robert is completely dependent on other people to get him through the day and that includes his daily meals damn the consequences that simple pleasure of eating something as bad as it was for me just made me happy Robert I'm home but then afterwards I would start to question myself why I had to eat that much when I was a baby I was bornn with a club foot with almost permanent hearing loss my club foot eventually was corrected when I was 2
or 3 years old that I was able to walk normal again but it made me feel different and it made me feel like a little bit of an outcast my food issue started very young because when I was 6 years old we moved down from North Jersey to South Jersey and my parents opened up a Fried Chicken store and being around all that available food was definitely something new for me it's something I never experienced before my life food gets Robert through everything in his life and at this point he has developed an emotional dependence
on it but then things got bad for me one summer at 9 years old when I met a boy who happened to live two or three houses away and he started inviting me over his house for lunch and one day I was put in a very bad situation with him we were watching TV and his grandparents weren't home and he ended up forcing me into a sexually molesting situation and after the molestation occurred the boy threaten me and basically said if I told anybody that he would kill me the next time he saw me so
I was very scared for my life it's evident that Robert's rough childhood is what led to him finding solace in food and he hasn't been able to let go of his addiction even as an adult in January of my senior year my father had a heart attack and he went to the hospital and had triple bypass I feel like my father was going to die and I didn't know how to deal with it I would eat being depressed and a lot of stuff just seemed like it was about to explode to my house like things
were not good for my family and then finally my mother had enough she threw them out as I was getting older things got worse because when I was 19 I had got a phone call one day that my brother Chris had a heart attack he was in the hospital Chris was 3 and a half years older than me we ran to the hospital we came in and the doctor pronounced he was dead [Music] felt like my world crashed down just crashed right down but things weren't over just yet because Robert's life threw one curveball at
him after the other I met Rob about 14 years ago Rob size didn't bother me um he was such a fun person to be around it never really occurred to me to worry about his size when cther I first started dating I was very mobile we were going out we were bowling go to the movies all stuff normal couples do but I was hiding how much I really ate in front of Catherine our relationship has definitely changed because you know we went from having limited life to basically no life and I blame myself to an
extent you know I should have tried harder and made him you know lose weight I was 36 when I reached 700 lb and the liida got real bad under my leg Robert kept gaining weight but he didn't care because that was the only thing that ever made him feel better gra the fries mom please thank you I hate that this is our life and that this is Rob's life could call the wings love wings but nothing stops him from eating food is killing him and taking our future I know Rob wants to keep the promise
he made to me to lose the weight but he's only gotten bigger and now he's to the point where I don't know if he can survive much longer I want to have a family with him but I've never seen him this bad I'll F but this is just too good Robert is only happy when he sits down to eat and his family is growing more and more concerned about his health now if I keep continuing to behave like this I won't be able to function much longer unless I make the changes my life's onlye in
one place I do feel close to death I feel like I'm knocking on heaven's door if I don't change his fiance Catherine is desperate for Robert to find help so they can start building their life together because for now now everything is on pause because of Robert's weight today we are heading to Houston to beet Dr nard for the first time and hopefully to get help to save my life so are you ready for this Robert are you confident that you could do this yeah I mean again I'm confident too I think you can do
to be a whole new person I'm tired of my weight affecting every aspect of my life it's been hard on everyone not just myself it's been hard on my family it's been hard on my friends and it's been hard on Catherine but I do believe that this is my last and final chance in the first month of Robert's weight loss Journey he is heading over to Houston to meet Dr now who has agreed to help him cool cool Co good good good good good good you got it all right you in yeah all right I'm
going to do a lot of hoping and praying that he'll come through it I'm turning him over to God and Dr nardan and I'll pray for both of them but the journey is already proving to be a struggle and they aren't even on the road yet so it's an all or nothing deal for us if we're going to do this we have to move our whole life down there and that's so scary because we're going to be completely on our own in Houston but thankfully our friends chip and Sandy are going to go with us
to help us at least get down to Houston and settle Us in because if I had to do this on my own I know I wouldn't make it Rob is having trouble because sitting like this is really uncomfortable for him and we haven't made it very far because we've had to stop constantly to eat because Robert isn't just going to Houston to visit him and his fiance are packing up their whole lives and moving there since Robert can't keep making the long journey again and again we got to have you roll we have to have
you roll jeez there we go I got it keep going there we go all right roll back for a minute okay and I'm going to have to find a bed for him soon because he's hurting too bad right now I'm coming around even now Catherine has to take constant brakes while driving because Robert needs to go to the bathroom and needs time to stretch his limbs that are pretty confined in the car I called ahead and found a hotel that says they have a handicap room so we just need to get there and I can
try to get Rob out and into a bed all right this is the regular bed it's the very last room at the end of this hallway of course it is all right so I have the rooms I'll get your wheelchair first bring your Walker too yes yes please hurry I'm trying honey I can only go as fast as I can this hotel told me they had a handicap room and we reserved it but now they only have a king bed so I don't know what we're going to do at his size it's just so hard
to show up somewhere and hope everything can hold his weight or he can fit in places even finding a hotel room has been a struggle for Catherine because of Robert's weight and that only adds to their stress after the long journey that's Queen can't queen well then you sleep in it and I'll just sleep on the floor actually it's a full no that's not a full bed go move this table I can't move it where am I supposed to move it just stay here I'll sleep on the floor no yes honey I'm too tired you
can sleep in the bed with me no I can't cuz this is a double that's why isn't it honey we barely got into a queen together can I put you in the bed fine you to bed and that leads to a lot of arguments between the couple after getting some sleep we hit the road early but we're not moving any faster than we did yesterday because of the constant stops to eat or take bathroom breaks so we're going to have to find another hotel tonight and I'm not looking forward to repeating all that again I
just want to get this whole trip over with so I'm just going to try and get Rob in so we can rest and then get back on the road tomorrow and hopefully make it to Houston the next morning Robert and Catherine are on the road once again and with all this stress Robert has resorted to junk food to get him through the rest of the journey I'm hoping this is our last day on the road because I really want to get to Houston [Music] today oh oh [Music] a this is not good this is not
good the next morning they are ready to set out once again but it's evident that Robert is struggling I fell I'm sorry no no no no no yeah damn it did you get up without your Walker I did no I was up but I was trying to turn around in bed and sit cuz I was hanging off the bed my name is Catherine k a t h r y n my fiance he's falling down and I can't get him up he's about 700 lb so I probably need two teams my fiance fell off the bed
when he gets down he can't get back up we're actually transporting down to Houston to see a doctor to help him with the weight okay we need to get a lot of this stuff out of the room Rob we're going to end up rolling you your right but don't do anything yet do anything yet as he attempts to get up on his own Robert experiences a horrible fall I didn't need this to happen I didn't break anything but I'm definitely paid from that like I'm going to feel a couple hours like the Pain's going to
be tremendous if I can't get the help I need I have nothing left it could have been a lot worse but Rob's already got his breakfast in the van it's a little cold but I mean this man loves cold fast food and whatnot anyways so he'll be okay but things happen an entire emergency team has to be called to take Robert to the car and he immediately turns to food to tune the pain out hi doctor how you doing I'm do what's going on now we're just on our way and just I'm just having a
lot of pain um I actually fell and um I mean like nothing got hurt real bad but I'm all bruised up like going up my legs and my toes like there's definitely like bruising and swelling and it's just you know laying down the whole time it's it's just been a little rough obviously okay where are you now I believe it's another hour and a half 2 hours to Little Rock okay so what do you takeing for pain for my worst pain I take deled 8 migs and because he's in so much pain he ends up
calling doctor now to ask him what to do we're thankfully in Houston and almost to the hospital doctor now is going to meet us there and get Rob admitted and hopefully this will be the start of his new life Robert pel is shown up here shortly his weight is unknown but he's been as heavy as 800 lb so I'm concerned how his body is holding up but he's already called asking for pain it so I'm hoping he doesn't have addiction to that as well as food to deal with but all he can do is push
through the pain and get to the hospital as soon as possible so the doctor can see what's going on so what is with this do medicine that you've been hooked on only for ex extreme pain of my leg mhm and I try to take it as least least as possible when I walk or when I do exercises that that really puts pressure on well I'm very concerned about all the pain medication you own so I'm admitting you to the hospital to start you on a 1200 calorie a day diet but we also are going to
cut you off from the painkillers okay because the rate and amount you're taking is going to kill you the first thing that doctor now is concerned about is Robert's heavy usage of pain medicine she's working hard for you she's working overtime for me this is the girl I have to marry I Can't Let Her Go She's My Everything Doctor Robert is in far worse shape than I've seen in a while so we have a lot of work to do with him and very little time to do it his body is barely really hanging on at
this point but we'll do everything within our power to get him to a healthier place and try to save his life he also lets Robert know that if he doesn't take his health seriously at this point he is not going to have very long to live Robert has been in the hospital for a couple days now and we have run a number of tests on him and there are some concerning issues that we are finding the biggest one being the amount of painkillers he had in his system it's the highest I have ever seen and
that alone has deteriorated his body significantly on top of the amount of weight he has on him but I don't think he even realizes the amount of pul he's been taken in after a couple of days Robert is still in the hospital and doctor now has to perform an emergency procedure on him because of his painkiller usage Robert does some ERS in his stomach the good news is it didn't look like any holes had formed in the stomach lining but that issue can develop fast so we need to start treating him immediately for that so
we'll St with medication to address his stomach ERS before they have a chance to get any worse that combined with the fact that we are making him do a complete withdrawal from all the painkillers we'll hopefully get him back on the right track the medication has resulted in a few ulcers in his stomach and with Robert's weight and deteriorating Health the situation can turn dangerous soon Robert has been doing well with the treatments we have been given him and he's staying on the diet but he's still has a long way to go before he is
out of the woods before we got down here I was a little nervous because you can put somebody in an institutionalized setting all you want but that doesn't mean that they're ready to deal with it he's been pretty calm and it's comforting because that means that to me he's finally ready to go and do what he has to do to get our life back in the second month of his journey Robert is still at the hospital and seems to be doing pretty well under the doctor's supervision like my arms hurt me right now like I've
never I mean it's been years since I've done any kind of pull like try to pull a pull up I'm going to call for a even just do the exercise hurts well that doesn't surprise me it's stuff that you it's stuff that you haven't done you're using muscles you haven't had to use and I told you he he lowered my pain beds from what I was getting so that I knew yeah so I'm I'm I'm definitely hurting yeah that I know but Robert's unhealthy dependence on pain meds is clearly evident especially when he is performing
his routine exercises I've been in the hospital for a while and I'm feeling better now um that of course I have it a long time the diet's been adjustment it's very strict it's very regimented and that was a little slow goinging at first you know trying to get it adjust to the portions and I'm getting there but it has been hard some days Rober has continued to make good progress and with where he's at now it's time that he start doing more and getting up and out of bed it's the third month and Robert feels
a lot better compared to how he first felt when he got here he's still sticking to the diet and following the doctor's orders no matter how hard things are let's see what the way this at today it looks like you're down to 6:25 wow that's super we have you down over 200 lb since you got here so like we discussed today we will have a trans sport coming to take you to the rehab facility to help get you up and walking more okay and if everything improve you get your stamina back we're going to go
ahead and take one of these masses of doctor now is here to weigh him and Robert has lost a significant amount of weight but now it's time for him to work on his Mobility Robert is in better place but until he get much more active then his body will continue to deteriorate at a significant rate until it accelerates to the point that his body just gives out so this will be a very significant month for Robert well Robert has been doing well he needs to get his body to move or else he will never be
able to walk on his own ever again all right Mr how you doing all right so you know we're going for the long haul all right let's do it okay Physical Therapy has been going really good we started off a little slow at each time we go out now it's a little more hard in the fourth month Robert has lost 217 lb and spent the last month in rehab trying to build up his stamina I've been really impressed with how hard Rob is working when he first got here he could barely make it out of
his room without needing to quit now he can make it down the hall and almost to the other side of the building all right that's it okay bring it up good thank you all right see you guys have a good weekend take care you too thank you all right take it easy his hard work continues to show and he visibly looks better than he was during the start of his journey with his body being able to handle his weight now hey Albert hey Dr how's everything coming along good I hear your physical therapy is going
well and you've been doing a lot more I walk every day that's good yeah we started out maybe it was maybe 50 or 60 ft here and we've got to O over 200 that's excellent so you're doing great and you may be ready to have your mood okay good that's great after Robert is done with his daily exercise doctor now comes in for a check up Robert is doing very well and he's improving daily he certainly is not ready for anything too invasive like weight loss surgery so NE is our only option for any procedure
if he even is able to handle that I never actually thought it would ever happen for you I would ever wanted help they just said mean things I can't believe somebody's actually doing this for you long to come coming four and a half years of everybody say no started to wonder if our if our future was ever going to actually happen and while Robert has made a significant amount of progress his body is still not strong enough to endure surgery and he needs to get a lymphadema removal before anything else is all for a good
thing honey doesn't mean I don't worry about losing [Music] you it breaks my C CME cuz I know she genuinely loves me I love you come back to you come back I know she cares about me my biggest hopes is that this is the stepping stone on to getting married having a family this is this is the first step today a week later Robert is in the hospital getting prepped for his lymphadema removal and he's nervous so if he does well with this one we can remove the other one in five or 6 weeks but
this surgery can be very high risk and we have to be extremely careful with Robert because his body has been pushed to the limit for so long so this procedure needs to remain as simple as possible and we need to complet it as quickly and as safely as we can because he won't survive on anesthesia for too long the procedure is definitely risky because of how weak Robert's body has gotten after everything it has gone through so his recovery will need to take a little time and after he gets past the first week then he
will have to start pushing through any pain he has because we're not going to allow him to fall back into the habit of using pain medication like he was another point of concern is Robert's dependence on painkillers but doctor now hopes that he will be able to push through it hey Mr Bell how are you all right how you doing are you feeling pain or discomfort pain yeah and on a scale of 1 to 10 what would you just like a N9 or eight a 9 or eight all right well let me get you taken
care of okay thank you today's been the worst of recovery so far um it wasn't that bad at first today the pain is really set in and it's really hard to move I'm really struggling today having a hard day I wouldn't tell you if it was bad if it wasn't like no I believe you if I saw anything of concern I will call doctor now but for now let's just monitor it all right anything else I can do for you no I'm good all right I'll be back in I'll have 5:00 meds for you and
turn him all right thank you he's been on pain meds for many many years so he's a little less susceptible to their effects and he's having a tough time with the pain but he's pushing through it a few days after his surgery Robert is recovering well but his addiction to pain medication is getting the best of him right now we had Robert on minimal painkill and he wasn't happy with the limits we put on him and once we started to take him completely off he got so upset that he tore his switches open just so
he could get them again but it is extremely important that he gets back to walking again because if he doesn't then his body they will start to Reg rest so we have dropped all the plans for followup surgery to remove his other lymph m in the fifth month Robert is still at the hospital and is struggling with his dependence on pain medication more than he ever has before so today we're going to get you go down to the rehab and start working to get you walking again all right you're ready for that yeah all right
let's see where your weigh is at looks like you're down to 52 you're almost in the 400s again so you should feel a lot lighter to get up and move around without any more excuses about the pain all right can I get a last uh something for paid before we go Robert let me ask you a couple of questions how long you been on D audit I don't know for a few years few years okay you know that medicine is highly addictive and you know that everybody that has been oned we have hard time to
get him off you have to understand that this medication creates two problems one is a chemical dependency the other one is psychological dependency all of this is leading to a lot of arguments between him and Catherine but when it's time for him to head back to rehab he asks the doctor for painkillers and doctor now needs to give him a reality check Robert need to take his situation and choices seriously right now because if he doesn't he's going to end up back in very dire place but if he won't do what he needs then it's
only matter of time he starts to deteriorate and his body gives out and at that point he won't survive much longer no matter how much he argues with doctor now the doctor is not convinced Rob has been in the rehab facility for 2 months now and the way it's been going is not how I hoped at all after his surgery he was in a fairly good mood in the first few days he was normal Rob and then it's like somebody flipped a switch and he has been a nasty person since then so it's been hard
and he still feels like pain is keeping him from exercising like he needs so I'm starting to get really worried fast forward to the seventh month and it looks like Robert has stopped making any progress really clarify gee I don't know maybe the way you've been treating me maybe the way you've been you won't do anything you're nasty to everyone especially me no cuz you try to make me look bad in front of people I don't try to make you look bad I'm just trying to get the facts right that you're not getting right do
the leg exercises I brought your stupid exercise bar you haven't touched it once you know I love you yeah right if there's ever been a time I doubt you it's now come here no no come here no just go away from me no just come here please come here please come here please come here for a second no you've said your peace no no I didn't say my peace and let me guess you don't think you've said anything wrong to me you haven't been a nasty jerk lately you're not a nasty jerk sometimes yeah sometimes
not like you you're every day now no like somebody flipped a switch on you you are not Rob anymore the worst part is that things between him and Catherine are extremely tense we still having issues with Robert and I think the situation is that when he arrived he knew he would be put on a diet but he didn't expect to be taken off puls so it was a surprise to him when we cut him off to save his life and at that point he knew having surgery was the only way he'll be able to get
them again so he became extremely motivated to make the progress he needed to qualify for that so the realization sunken that as long as he is in this program he's done with the pain killers and he believes now he can't do it without them not to mention that Dr now has noticed Robert's lack of progress and the part that his painkiller addiction is playing in all of this so we had transport coming by today to take you to a long-term care facility it is unfortunate that we have to send you there but you've been here
too long and you aren't doing what you need and that has to change okay yeah not feeling great you know my uh skin underneath is hurting the sores and the and the rubbing in the skin and I'm sorry to hear some of those things but you still need to get up and walking and you don't seem to realize how dangerous this is getting if you continue to refuse to do what you need your situation is going to start to get worse again rubber so your new facility is going to be your last chance if you
don't start doing what you need there then there is really nothing more we can do to help okay before you came to here you walking pretty good distance right well only only when somebody followed me with a wheelchair somebody you were walking yes but I was never getting up freely on my own mhm it's not it this is more of a leg problem not not me wanting to do this problem just stop with excuses and get out of this bed that's when Dr now comes in to speak to Robert oneon-one and make him understand what
his problem is right now you need to walk as much as you can as far as as you can I will you've been in this bed for too long okay okay and things need to change and they need to change now or your situation will get to a place where we won't be able to help you and your body won't be able to go on okay all right I'll see yall later thank you doctor now lets him know that until he actually commits to working on himself there's no way he's qualifying for the weight loss
surgery Rob seems to be getting worse and worse and his happiness has stalled it's like somebody popped the balloon from him and it's been getting hard for me not to break there's been a few times that I've actually considered going home because nothing is working on my end and now with him feeling the way he's feeling I don't have the capacity to be positive for both of us I'm having a hard enough time with myself you ready okay let's do it it's all you you got it we're going to get in the hallway if you
feel like your knee's going to buckle let me know and I'll pull the chair up okay all right I'm definitely doubting myself more I think because I'm still thinking about the road ahead and how long I have left and how many surgeries I have left and I think that's really starting to get to me too and that hurts me that I'm adding more stress on Catherine and I have fear that one day cather's just going to have enough and she's going to leave in the ninth month Robert is staying in a long-term care facility and
has been struggling with his Mobility leading to Catherine helping him with his physical therapy back to the room stand up and walk to your bed all right going to give me a sec I was really trying to push the walk I know it's hard on Catherine she is playing the role of trying to keep me up too as well as herself I know it's tough on her and I'm not trying to do that purposely to her my life you know not revolves around her but my life is playing with her his body has gotten extremely
weak due to Robert's lack of exercise and things aren't looking great I woke up this morning the best way I could put it was I was disappointed that I woke up I really was hoping that it was just the most surreal nightmare it's not and I just can't believe that I've lost him last night I was getting ready to go and he says please don't leave me tonight I don't feel good I want somebody here with me so we were sitting there and he was looking at me and he says I just want to let
you know he says I don't think I'm going to make it through tonight and I said of course you're fine you'll be fine and he said well just in case he said just understand I love you and I always have and I told him I said I love you too and we uh laid down we went to bed right around 6:00 you know I hear him setting himself up I looked at I said what's the matter he just the pain and into my back and he started saying and he was he felt like he was
having trouble breathing I was holding his hand I said it's all right just focus on me and no he just he kept trying to get a breath in and then and then his eyes just went black completely dilated out and he just began to fall back and I held on to him I said no please and I'm smacking his hand I said please no don't do this I said don't do this I just I kept thinking to myself I said I'm not watching this I'm not I can't be watching this and he just that was
it Robert continued to struggle to stay active and his body kept deteriorating until it finally gave up and he suffered a heart attack that took his life I really feel like I I'm just trying not to fall to pieces every time I think about him but I actually didn't lose it until I went to go put our wedding rings on because I figured well we're never going to get a chance at least let me do it now everything that we were planning is gone absolutely everything and I don't know how to process the fact that
I lost my best friend and person I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with the entire experience of witnessing his heart attack was overwhelming for Catherine who was having a hard time dealing with the loss I'm so sorry oh sorry it's not your fault that's not true yes it is I should have known I'm sorry M I didn't mean to hear you son you did the best you could it was the best you could I should have come sooner no you were doing everything to help us a few days after his death
Catherine and Robert mother Marlene head over to see Dr now I hope his story will come out and show everybody who he was and how hard he tried yes and will be inspiration for other people nice to meet you thank you so much call me anytime you need anything okay thank you Dr Des I appreciate everything you did for us well you at least gave him hope again yeah thank you so much all right thank you so much for everything you're welcome people can sit back and judge but to overcome the things Robert was trying
to do isn't easy but we remember people for their fight not for their weaknesses doctor now helps the ladies find the closure they need Rob's heart was so big that his body couldn't contain it I used to tell him that all the time I said the reason you're big guy is because you have too much love for everybody it doesn't fit your heart he should be here we should be getting married next year we should be having a family although I've only been here on this Earth for 33 years I can easily say that I've
never met anyone like Rob he was exciting he was loving he was romantic and he was above all my best friend I can only say that this world didn't just lose a good man but it was robbed of a great man to see you all here many of you wearing Rob's favorite color orange it is warming my heart and I know if he were here to see you he'd be so honored to call you all his family thank you so much for coming soon after that Catherine moves back to New Jersey and holds a life
celebration for her late husband [Music] [Music]
